2jo Singing Valleys 



or in the Greek hero-myths. "As certain of your own poets 

 have said . . ." 



At the door on summer evenings 



Sat the little Hiawatha, 



Heard the whispering of the pine-trees, 



Heard the lapping of the water; 



Sounds of music, sounds of wonder . . . 



Sounds which the boy imagined to be the voice of the 

 mother who had died in giving him birth. His grandmother, 

 "Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis," brought him up. Her 

 tales helped to build the mother-image in young Hiawatha's 

 mind. 



Hiawatha's youth is lived under the dominance of these 

 two mothers, his own and his grandmother. When he reaches 

 manhood, he seeks to escape. True to the archetypal pattern, 

 he conceives the idea that if it were not for his father he could 

 possess his mother that is, she would be to him like any 

 other woman. She would lose her mysterious, powerful influ- 

 ence. He would be free. Accordingly he seeks out his father 

 and kills him. The same thing happens in a hundred other 

 hero-myths. The prize the hero wins by overcoming his father 

 is his inheritance of his father's strength. 



But still, Hiawatha is not free within himself. On his return 

 journey he meets and falls in love with the maiden Minne- 

 haha. Her name means Laughing Water; but to Hiawatha's 

 ear the sounds of the trees and the waters are still his mother's 

 voice. He is unable to give himself to this love because he is 

 still in bondage to the mother-image. 



Restless and frustrated, he retires to solitude in the forest. 

 In this sense, he gives himself up to the Mother. 



One might think that the hero had now lost reality com- 

 pletely. Not so. Reality comes to him: 



Dressed in garments green and yellow 

 Coming through the purple twilight, 

 Through the splendor of the sunset; 



